Empire Conquest

Chapter 578 - 574 Difficult Problem

Daytime air defense operations reflected a very serious issue that had not yet been resolved.

There was a severe lack of air detection capabilities; even the most advanced radars could not guarantee timely detection of incoming enemy aircraft at all times.

Adding more Anti-Air Warships and equipping all large Battleships with radar was merely a makeshift solution.

The reason was simple: Anti-Air Warships deployed at the front were extremely vulnerable to attacks, and once they lost their combat effectiveness, the air defense network in their direction would inevitably have gaps.

Moreover, radars mounted on Battleships were practically useless against enemy aircraft flying at ultra-low altitudes.

On a clear day, they were even inferior to the eyes of a lookout.

The problem didn’t lie with the radar itself, but with the curvature of the Earth.

The most effective solution was actually to increase the installation height of the radar.

This was precisely why the Empire Navy placed special emphasis on Fast Battleships and other large warships, as only large warships could be equipped with sufficiently tall masts, and only they could install radar at higher positions, which enhanced the detection range for ultra-low altitude targets and increased the efficiency of air defense operations.

Unfortunately, no matter how large the Battleship, it was not possible to increase the height of the mast indefinitely.

In actual combat, even under relatively ideal conditions, a Fast Battleship could only provide about 10 minutes of air defense warning time.

In fact, "10 minutes" was a prerequisite for contemporary air defense tactics.

All of the Empire Navy’s air defense tactics revolved around "10 minutes." Within this timeframe, they not only had to detect enemy aircraft but also organize Fighters to intercept them.

Simply put, it meant deploying air defense Fighters in advance, concentrating them in the direction of the incoming enemy aircraft to ensure immediate interception upon detection.

Clearly, in high-intensity naval air warfare, this tactic was simply not viable.

In normal circumstances, a large carrier could carry around 40 Fighters at most, with generally no more than 30 being allocated for air defense operations for the Fleet. Usually, about 20 would be deployed at a time, so at most could only perform air defense interception tasks in 3 directions.

To put it bluntly, there were not enough Fighters.

The simplest solution was actually to increase the number of carriers, forming a Special Mixed Fleet with 2 or even 3 carriers.

However, this was not the most effective method.

If both sides kept grouping more carriers together, then no matter how many additional carriers there were, the problem of insufficient Fighters could not be fundamentally solved.

On the contrary, having too many warships grouped together would inevitably make command a disaster.

According to the experience of the Empire Navy, having 3 carriers in one Special Mixed Fleet was the limit; any more would lead to difficult command coordination and reduce the Fleet’s combat efficiency. If problems arose in battle, the consequences would be unimaginable.

To improve the efficiency of air defense operations, the best method was actually to enhance detection methods, striving to discover incoming enemy aircraft from as far away as possible, providing more air defense warning time, and allowing air defense Fighters to be positioned further back, moving forward to intercept after detecting the enemy aircraft.

Clearly, this required placing radars at higher locations.

Empire Navy’s technical experts had long thought of this; if radars could be flown into the sky, carried by aircraft, this difficult problem could be perfectly solved.

Of course, radars had already been mounted on aircraft.

The Army Air Force had already equipped Night Fighters, and the hallmark of a Night Fighter was a small search radar, which allowed them to detect and track enemy aircraft at night.

The Navy Air Force had also purchased a batch of Night Fighters, equipped shore-based air forces to guard Military Ports and other key locations.

But the problem was, the Night Fighters were equipped with small radars which not only had short detection ranges but also reliability that wasn’t high enough and very limited operating times.

For fire control, the problem wasn’t too significant, as the operating time would only be for a few minutes anyway.

For prolonged detection and search operations, it simply wouldn’t work.

To put it plainly, radar that could operate continuously, had a sufficient detection range, and was highly reliable, had not yet become small enough to be carried by aircraft.

As for tactical-level ship-borne aircraft, that was even less likely.

Don’t forget, all night fighters are twin-engine long-range fighters, twice the weight of regular ship-borne fighters, roughly equivalent to a medium bomber.

In fact, the first few types of night fighters were converted from high-performance twin-engine medium bombers.

The problem, once again, lay with radar.

Long before the outbreak of the great war, the Imperial Navy had increased its investment in radar and other electronic equipment, commissioning several domestic electronics manufacturers and research institutions to develop compact search radars and to collaborate with ship-borne aircraft manufacturers to explore mounting radars on ship-borne aircraft.

As far as Bai Zhizhan knew, the "radar machine" based on the "Thunderbolt" had completed its maiden flight, but its performance was very poor.

There was nothing surprising about choosing the "Thunderbolt"; it was the heaviest and largest ship-borne aircraft, and after removing unnecessary equipment, it had about one ton of weight capacity for carrying radar.

Crucially, the "Thunderbolt’s" cockpit was large enough that, after removing the rear defensive machine guns, it could even accommodate a fourth crew member.

Thus, in addition to the pilot and navigator, it could carry a radar operator and a communications commander.

Moreover, there was a bomb bay on the belly of the "Thunderbolt," used for carrying torpedoes, which could be adapted for housing radar.

Unfortunately, the miniaturization of radars was still insufficient, or it might be said that the performance of small radars was too poor, and there were many issues that did not have immediate solutions.

The most typical issue was how to achieve a full 360-degree airspace search with an airborne radar.

After conducting tests, the Navy did not place an order for this type of radar machine but still provided funding to the manufacturers to continue their research and development.

In summary, the daylight combat once again proved acquiring the means to effectively detect extremely low-flying enemy aircraft had become a pressing priority for fleet anti-air warfare.

In the absence of reliable technology, the only option was to use crude methods.

This was precisely why the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet boasted 2 fast battleships, 4 long-range cruisers, 4 heavy cruisers, and 4 light cruisers.

A total of 14 anti-air warships!

Additionally, among the 8 destroyers, the 2 leading the squadrons were also equipped with radar.

Including the 2 large carriers, the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet had 18 warships equipped with radar.

Without a doubt, this was most certainly the most extravagant line-up of its time.

Not to mention anything else, merely purchasing 18 air-search radars was enough to build several cruisers.

The Twelfth Special Mixed Fleet was in a similar situation, except that the leading destroyers of the squadrons were not equipped with radar; still, their configuration was very luxurious.

In Zhou Yongtao’s words, only the Imperial Navy could afford to equip so many warships with radar.

Of course, this was made possible through large-scale production.

By mass-producing, which is to say, expanding production, the Imperial Navy had reduced the purchase price of radar by two-thirds, enabling widespread installation on various warships.

Additionally, by bundling purchases and simultaneously ordering equipment like voice radios, it forced electronics manufacturers to lower production costs.

In reality, the Imperial Navy had already decided to make radar a staple across the fleet.

According to the new plan, starting next year, both air-search and sea-search radars were to become standard equipment for all long-range warships, including large destroyers.

By then, the air defense conundrum may see some alleviation.